During a chat with Canadian radio, Paul McCartney revealed that an entirely revamped version of the Beatles‘ final movie, Let It Be, is likely in the works. DenOfGeek.com reported McCartney, who’s riding high with Egypt Station (his first chart-topper in 36 years) was asked about that status of Let It Be finally seeing a DVD/Blu-ray release and said: “I think there may be a new version of it. That is kind of the latest gossip. The original movie was really sort of about the break-up of the Beatles and so, for me, it was a little sad.”
He went on to say, “There’s about 56 hours of footage and someone was talking the other day to me and said ‘the overall feeling is very joyous and very uplifting. It’s like a bunch of guys making music and enjoying it,’ y’know? So I think there is some talk about making a new movie, re-editing it from the same period, from the same footage. We can make a new film out of it. So who knows, that may be happening in a year or two.”
The Daily Beatle reported in a February 2017 interview with the film’s cinematographer Tony Richmond in, he explained: “We remastered (Let It Be) for DVD and there were so many outtakes that weren’t used in the film that really show the acrimony between all of the Beatles. But that’s still being held up by George Harrison’s estate and his wife (Olivia Harrison) and Yoko Ono because they don’t want the acrimony shown.”
Back in 2008, McCartney and Ringo Starr reportedly stopped a re-issue of the legendary documentary, because it featured footage showing the internal strife among the “Fab Four.” According to Britain’s Daily Express at the time, an inside source claimed “they don’t like how the band comes across. . . Neither Paul nor Ringo would feel comfortable publicizing a film showing the Beatles getting on each other’s nerves.”
The insider added, “People like to imagine the Beatles were a happy ship but the reality towards the end was very different as this film shows. There’s all sorts of extra footage showing more squabbles but it’s unlikely it will ever see the light of day in Paul and Ringo’s lifetime.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQxQv-qwOLE
In 1970 John Lennon recalled, in an interview not done with 94.7 WLS-FM, the nearly month-long film shoot for Let It Be, saying: “It was just a dreadful, dreadful feeling being filmed all the time. I just wanted them to go away. And we’d be there at eight in the morning and you couldn’t make music at eight in the morning, or 10, or whatever it was . . . in a strange place with people filming you and colored lights.”
The tension between the group is palpable, especially during the sequence where George Harrison and Paul McCartney argue over Harrison’s playing on the song “Two Of Us.” McCartney explained to Pulse that unconsciously, in Let It Be, the Beatles were actually telling the world that they were breaking up: “In fact what happened was when we got in there we showed how the breakup of a group works because we didn’t realize that we were actually breaking up, y’know as it was happening.”
The Beatles‘ Let It Be, which was shot in January 1969, was originally intended to be a TV special called Get Back featuring the group rehearsing for their first live show in over two years. The early rehearsals captured the group — along with John Lennon‘s soon-to-be wife Yoko Ono — clearly bored, with only Paul McCartney showing any real enthusiasm for the new material. The first part of the film shows the strain of the early morning sessions held in a cavernous soundstage at London’s Twickenham film studios.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xDzVZcqtYI
Among the songs featured in the film are “Let It Be,” “Get Back,” “Don’t Let Me Down,” “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “For You Blue,” “Octopus’ Garden,” “I’ve Got A Feeling,” “One After 909,” “I Me Mine,” “Two Of Us,” “Across The Universe,” “The Long And Winding Road,” covers of “Besame Mucho,” “Shake, Rattle And Roll,” and “Kansas City,” among others — including the still unreleased originals “Jazz Piano Song” and “Suzy Parker.”
According to legend, over 90 hours of footage was shot during the month-long rehearsals and recording sessions, including the Beatles’ legendary final live performance on the roof of their Apple headquarters.
Footage exists of the group running through early-Beatles songs such as “Please Please Me,” “Devil In Her Heart,” “You Can’t Do That,” “Every Little Thing,” and “She Said, She Said.”
Also filmed were group performances of songs that would end up on future solo albums such as John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” and “Gimme Some Truth,” Paul McCartney’s “Another Day,” “The Back Seat Of My Car,” “Hot As Sun,” and “Every Night,” along with George Harrison‘s “All Things Must Pass,” “Isn’t It A Pity,” and “Let It Down.”
There’s no word whether any of that material would be included on the new collection.
